2 0 1 8 ANNUAL REPORT INTEGRATING M I S S I O N ART NATURE & NEIGHBORHOOD TO BUILD AND SUSTAIN A DYNAMIC DELRIDGE PROGRAMS OVERVIEW DNDA collaborates with local creatives and organizers to develop projects that engage young and diverse communities. Many of these programs are held at DNDA's historic Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, which houses an alternative high school, nonprofit offices, affordable rental facilities, and 36 live-work spaces for low-income artists of all disciplines. DNDA also support integrative art programming through our EcoArts Program, Arts in Nature Festival, and ART within our Restorative Justice and Summer Youth programs. DNDA is committed to restoring, preserving, and protecting our natural habitat by developing community stewards. Our Urban Forest Restoration Program engages volunteers to work at 11 parks in West Seattle, and through our Delridge Wetland Park we work to expand local permaculture and access to affordable healthy NATURE food, while providing a teaching garden for youth environmental science lessons. DNDA provides affordable housing for local artists and low-income families at 7 properties in the Delridge corridor. All of our housing options are less expensive than for-profit buildings so that families with lower NEIGHBORHOOD incomes can always live in Delridge. 2018 in ART 45,000 Youngstown visitors 34 Art events 84 Recording sessions with youth 25 Film shoots & screenings "We really appreciate the work that YCAC does 109 Performances & rehearsals and feel very lucky to have you in our neighborhood, and were pleased that we could 57 Nonprofits rented space offer our support through rental. Also - wanted to let you know that about half of our guests 2,223 Hours of space donated to remarked that they had been to an event at Youngstown community YCAC and they enjoyed these events as well." - Youngstown Renter $100,170 Amount of public benefit generated by Youngstown 580 Youth served by EcoArts 1,900 Arts in Nature Festival goers Top left - Angelina Villalobos live painting at the Arts in Nature Festival Bottom left - Art activity at Youngstown during For Charleena (next page) Top right - Yeggy Michael's exhibition in the Promenade Gallery at Youngstown Middle right - EcoArts spring camp with youth at Camp Long Bottom right - Total Experience Gospel Choir at the Arts in Nature Festival Youngstown Cultural Arts Center Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is an inclusive and contemporary multi-arts hub in the Delridge Neighborhood of Southwest Seattle that incubates the arts, art-makers, and organizations. Programming at Youngstown serves our multicultural, inter-generational communities in order to engage in civic dialogue and meaningful community transformation. A school for 80 years, and a cultural arts center for the past 12 years, Youngstown has been at the heart of the neighborhood, and a symbol of community, education and the power of art for generations. Today, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center is a vibrant community focused on the arts, youth and creative collaboration. EcoArts Our year-round EcoArts environmental and art education program, provides artistic, cultural and environmental programming in SW Seattle. EcoArts programming includes summer and school break camps, and after-school classes. EcoArts is a unique model for arts- based environmental education; classes take place both indoors and outdoors in the forest. Lessons are inspired by, made from, and created in nature. Our curriculum is designed to increase students’ artistic skill, advance environmental awareness, foster positive identity, and increase social competence. EcoArts helps youth explore and connect their natural environment, their creativity, and their peers. Arts in Nature Festival The Arts in Nature Festival is a celebration of the arts and the amazing diversity of our community. As DNDA’s signature event for our Nature Consortium programs, the festival offers the community an engaging arts and performance experience in the woods of Seattle’s only campground, Camp Long. The festival features four intimate performance stages, art installations contained in 8 rustic cabins, and hands-on art and nature activities, designed for children and adults alike. Since the first Arts in Nature Festival in 1998, the event has become a community favorite that attracts attendance from all across Seattle. Looking Back on Fusion Spring Nature Camp 2018 Screaming and laughing as loud as they could, the children from DNDA and SHA’s High Point subsidized public housing spent a week running through Camp Long, exploring Seattle’s only urban campground. The kids that participated in DNDA’s Fusion Spring Nature Camp spent the whole week outdoors. This Fusion Spring Nature Camp aims to bring DNDA and SHA residents into nature for a week and to show them their creative potential through art. From April 9-13, the kids were taught a “It was wonderful. Our kids enjoyed it. Every variety of arts from DNDA Restoration Program's teaching artists time they came home, they shared what they as well as from our wonderful partners at Camp Long. With nearly learned about nature and the camp. It’s a great all their time spend outside, the kids ran through the forest and got experience for the kids to learn about nature… dirty in the mud and water, completely immersed in nature. I hope to have the same program over the summer,” Painting and sketching were present nearly every day. Kids - Abrehet Semerab, mother of three imagined animals and created backstories for them, drawing out camp participants their creations such as “sloth cat” and “spider cat”. They painted leaves and pine cones, and then stamped them into their sketchbooks, creating colorful and original natural paintings. Carving potatoes to create stamps was one of the kids’ favorite activities. They were taught the basics of photography and spent an afternoon on a scavenger hunt, practicing taking photos with different angles, lighting, and perspectives while racing to finish the hunt before the other kids. Camp Long instructors taught educational courses and took the kids rock climbing and dancing. With time to explore their personal interests including soccer, badminton, and jump-roping, the kids were never short of exciting activities to do in nature. Top - Youth doing investigative work during EcoArts Spring Camp Bottom - Participatory artmaking with youth during the Spring Camp 2018 in NATURE 105 Restoration events 2,158 Restoration volunteers 828 Youth volunteers Delridge Wetland Park The Delridge Wetland, located on 23rd Ave SW and SW Findlay 8,405 Volunteer hours St, is a project spearheaded by DNDA to protect, restore, preserve and expand the existing wetland to improve water quality in Longfellow Creek, meanwhile developing the space as 5,044 Native plants installed a public park for all to enjoy. Beside wetland restoration, other plans for the park include the creation of an urban garden, community orchard, as well as developing the space as an 1.5 Acres cleared of invasive species outdoor classroom for local students and the community to learn hands-on environmental science and wetland stewardship. 3 New parks expanded 78 Community partners 6 Community trainings 1,132 Number of student volunteers Top - Restoration work at the Pigeon Point site Bottom - Restoration work at the College Street Ravine site What's new at the Delridge Wetland? Our project is now the catalyst for investment in our local area’s green stormwater infrastructure, with a commitment from SDOT to construct a Safe Routes to School project in the right-of-way along 23rd Avenue SW and the Delridge Wetland Park. In the design, SDOT will construct a series of connected bioswales which were begun in 2017, starting along SW Juneau Street and continuing along 23rd Ave SW for two blocks to the wetland. In 2018, our project has grown to incorporate perspectives from our community in the design and planting of the bioswales. Students at Louisa Boren K-8 STEM school, working with DNDA staff, Outdoor Classroom Design, and Dirt Corps, took the lead in planting the Juneau "Thank you for supporting our school! Your community bioswale. Additionally, as part of the spring Project Based Learning partnership makes it possible for students to apply skills, Night, the students created clay models of the Longfellow Creek work in their communities, and experience hands-on watershed, on 3 different scales: 1. the wetland site, 2. the learning. We look forward to working with you again next interconnected neighborhood around K-8 STEM and the wetland, and, 3. the entire Longfellow Creek watershed. fall." - K-8 STEM Teacher at Louisa Boren We also completely revegetated the wetlands. DNDA, working with Gaynor,Inc., identified a plant mix of native species to restore native habitat and to increase biodiversity at the wetland site. Over 1,550 plants were installed at the wetland, over a period of two months, with six work-parties held in all. Students at K-8 STEM helped with the plantings, having their very own planting work-party in March. Community members completed the majority of the planting, with five dedicated work-parties during March, April, and May. The final plantings were installed by a mix of DNDA staff and Dirt Corps. Additionally, volunteers completed sheet-mulching of the entire wetland, extinguishing invasive plants and laying the foundation for revegetating the wetlands. Top - Project design with students from K-8 STEM School Bottom - Planting session with students from K-8 STEM School In the fall, we successfully engaged seven classes from Louisa Boren K-8 STEM School over grades 3-5 with wetland educational programming. We hosted 21 separate class visits to the wetland and made 13 visits to the school totaling close to 1,900 contact hours with 131 students. The seven teachers involved are committed to working with us through the rest of the year culminating in projects to be shared at the STEM K-8 Project Based Learning Night in May 2019.